Box Review: 1999 Pacific Private Stock (Hobby)

The 1999 Pacific Private Stock box contains 24 packs with 6 cards per pack (5 regular sized cards and 1 tobacco sized mini card).

The regular base set contains 150 cards with zero short prints (yay!).  There are four parallel sets for the base set:

• Private Stock Preferred Series (numbered to 399)
• Private Stock Exclusive Series (hobby only - numbered to 299)
• Private Stock Platinum Series (numbered to 199)
• Private Stock Vintage Series (numbered to 99)

In addition to the parallel sets for the regular base cards, there is a single parallel set of the mini set (which is a parallel of the base set to begin with)!  The mini set is called PS-206 while the parallel set is uncreatively called PS-206 Parallel.

Finally, there is a single insert set in this set (which is a big departure from many Pacific sets) called Home Run History which are seeded 2:25 packs (or not-quite-two-per-box).

Despite being released in 1999, the Pacific Private Stock set actually takes the majority of its cues from the "olden days."  With only one insert set, plus a few (rare) parallel set, the set is mostly focused on nothing but base cards.  Even more interesting, there aren't any subsets - just 150 base cards!  The base card design is solid, though ultimately it's not particularly memorable.

I like the team logo in the background - and the foil isn't so overdone to be obnoxious (unlike some other Pacific releases).  On the other hand, most of the photographs are boring (the Bagwell is the first card in the set has one of the better action shots with the broken bat)!  Most of the photos look more like Andruw Jones - batters in some part of their swing and pitchers standing on the mound.

The backs of the cards are interesting in that Pacific chose to pick a single "standout" game for the player in question and then provide the full box score for that game.

In the case of Derek Jeter, his game occured on May 20, 1998 where he went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs.  Quite honestly, that's a good game but hardly spectacular!  You also get 1998 season stats and career stats in the bottom right corner (plus another head shot photo in the top right corner).  It's different but I like it - easy to read so no complaints!

The mini cards are the same size as the classic tobacco cards (think the Allen & Ginter mini cards of current popularity for a size comparison).  The front of the mini cards looks exactly like the regular base cards except there is no foil (yay!).

The back of the regular mini cards is all blue with the Pacific Private Stock logo and card number present.  The PS-206 parallel set looks the same from the front of the card but the backside of the card is printed in red rather than blue.  Not a very exciting parallel set!

As I mentioned in the beginning, the box contains 24 packs with 5 base cards and 1 mini card per pack.  As such, you would expect 24 x 5 = 120 different base cards (minus a couple for the Home Run History inserts and maybe minus one or two more for the various parallel sets).

How did my box do?  Well, I did get 117 base cards - but 35 of those were duplicates and 3 were triplicates.  The other three regular sized cards included two Home Run History inserts.

I have to admit, the Home Run History cards don't do much for me.  Back in 1999 these would have been great - but given what we now know about the players involved (steroids, corked bats, etc.), it's hard to get too excited about the insert set.

The final base card was my lone full-sized parallel of the box:  A Pacific Private Stock Exclusive parallel of Derek Jeter numbered 190/299 on the back of the card.

I would have preferred to pull a Barry Larkin parallel but if I couldn't I guess I could have done a lot worse than pulling the Yankee's long time captain.  Speaking of Larkin, I did get one Barry Larkin base card - but no Larkin mini and no Larkin parallels which was disappointing for a Larkin collector!

In the end, I give the 1999 Pacific Private Stock the following ratings:
Set Design:  B
Collation:  F
Opening Thrill:  C-
Overall:  C-

I actually like the set, but it quickly became apparent that the box would be chock full of duplicates which would make collecting the entire set a challenge.  The lone insert set didn't hold up well over time - and while parallels can be interesting Pacific mostly mailed it in in terms of their parallels in this set.  Collation in the box was terrible, there's no excuse for triplicates - and that ended up dragging the overall box grade down a lot.

This is clearly not one of Pacific's finest moments.